"Freeze! Drop the hostage now!"

"_"

Eh?

Fidelis and his men blinked in a daze while watching the men in black rudely storm in with no manners whatsoever.

F***! Didn't they know that they were in the presence of the Holy Monkard?

Adonis will surely have their heads for this blatant show of disrespect!

Everyone sternly watched Marine Lieutenant Waldo and his team carefully advance closer to their targets while holding their black sticks in their hands.

Of course, they dared not make any impulsive moves because the hostage was held on so tightly to the enemy that one wrong move and they might accidentally kill or injure the already battered hostage instead.

As for Fidelis' men, they too drew out their swords and whips in defence, with many surrounding Fidelis.

They were more concerned with keeping their Hoky Monkard alive because he was the closest thing to Adonis and could manifest Adonis's might to wipe out the enemy cleanly.

But while these men were more focused on defence, Fidelis and Pangord were going through their words in their minds.

[Freeze! Drop the hostage now...]

Hostage?

Hmmm... Just the word hostage alone made them realize that these people were here to rescue Pangord.

This excited Pangord so much that he felt a massive surge of energy hit him, giving him hope and making him more energized than ever.

Of course, he also worried for these people as well.

.

To him, they might've come in here to save him, meaning they were probably far less in number than the Adonis followers.

After all, over this last year, he had learnt that they not only occupied the entire city but numerous other cities and regions as well.

So one would need a proper empire-scale army to rescue them.

And quite frankly, he couldn't come up with any empires that would be willing to risk the lives of so many people just for their sake.

In fact, the main reason why people wouldn't dare to help out was because they wouldn't want Adonis's wrath on them.

Being leaders of empires or nations also meant that they had to protect their people selfishly, even if it meant turning a blind eye to others in need.

Why? Because it was a fact that Adonis was stronger.

So what were their chances if they helped out?

They would just be inviting manslaughter to their homes too.

Sorry. But they also had family, riches and several other things to guard against.

Pangord couldn't think of anyone who would be so noble as to enter the fire, knowing damn well that they would lose.

This world was constantly making even good people turn bad.

So everyone had closed their eyes to the dangers around.

It was rare to see truly selfless people in this world.

That's why Pangord felt it impossible for an entire empire to risk it all and reap the wrath of Adonis' people just to free them.

No doubt It should be people from some assassin guilds or any other organizations probably out of Zalipnia that were said to rescue him and a few others.

Wait. Could it be from one of the neighbouring empires in Romain?

Or was it his in-law's family in Zohl?

Yes. One of his wives was from one of the Zohl empires. She was blue-skinned while he was dark-skinned.

And another of his wives was also from another empire within Romain.

Pangord's mind was full of worry at the notion of these people being sent by any of his wives' families.

If anything went wrong, then they too would get targeted.

Dammit! This wasn't good!

.

Fidelis also thought in line with Pangord as well. He thought they were small assassins who only wanted to rescue Pangord, meaning that they had close ties with him somehow.

In fact, he was impressed that they had made it this far without getting caught.

But this would no doubt be the end of the line for them.

Did they want to attack him with those tiny sticks in their hands?

Were these some new assassination blades that were now popular?

No! There weren't any sharp ends on it. So it was at most a metal stick.

He just didn't understand what the hell these people were thinking.

Nonetheless, he wasn't worried at all.

Heh.

They didn't call him Holy Monkard Hammer Hands for nothing.

With his sacred hands, he would crush their skulls with just a single hit.

Even his men were tough as well.

He didn't believe that anyone amongst tense lowly regions could stand shoulder to shoulder to anyone from Adonis.

So what was there to be scared of?

These intruders in black were fighting a lost cause.

"Who the hell are you all?

I advise you to turn back now, or the consequences will be far worse than you can imagine!" Fidelis said while arrogantly staring at the pieces of crap before him.

No... He stared at them as if looking at corpses instead.

Marine Lieutenant Waldo chuckled lazily: "So, you think you're better than me? Well, I admit that your physique looks tougher, and you might even have more experience than I do. And all this would have been great and all. But you just so happen to come across me."

Fidelis squinted his eyes sternly: "So, what are you saying? Are you saying that you're better than me in battle?"

"Eh? Heavens no!"

Somehow, hearing this answer, Fidelis unknowingly felt relieved.

"Then if you know you're fighting a losing battle, then why bother?"

"Well, it's because I'm better at gaming than you!"

"_"

.

Fidelis and the rest who had lost their train of thought, couldn't help looking at the assassins before them like fools.

What does playing games have to do with this?

Or could it be that gaming was training?

Was this moron saying that training with comrades was far better than gaining real experience with enemies?

Everyone felt like these people were idiots, but Waldo couldn't care less about their attitude.

"Like I said, you may have a better physique, but I'm a master gamer.

So tell me, do you know of a game called Finding Waldo? 

Well, if you don't, that's okay.

I don't mind showing you how it's done."

With a smile on his face, he quickly looked at a few others slyly.

"Ginger! Scully! You and your squads focus on freeing the other prisoners.

Elaine, James, Brody, Nina! You're with me.

Come. 

Let's teach our new friends here how to Find Waldo!!"